


Understudy

by Nokomis



Category: Batman (Comics), Batman - All Media Types, DCU - Comicverse
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-05
Updated: 2013-02-05
Packaged: 2017-11-28 06:23:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 967
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/671295
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nokomis/pseuds/Nokomis
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A brief Bat and Cat team up of a different flavor.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Understudy

**Author's Note:**

> For Lady Mercury. This takes place at some nebulous time during Dick’s run as Batman.

When the police report loads on his monitor, Dick feels like thunking his head against the desk for a moment before composing himself and reminding himself that Bruce never did anything that undignified when he was Batman.

Though, granted, what Bruce did as Batman is exactly _why_ Dick doesn’t want to deal with the theft of a thousand-year-old carved jade lynx statue. It reportedly disappeared from a locked, guarded vault at the Gotham Museum of History, and it has the claw marks of a certain costumed sometimes-villainess all over it.

Selina’s been surprisingly helpful with his transition into the cowl, but Dick just isn’t prepared to deal with Catwoman while wearing Bruce’s costume. 

He’s halfway to her place before realizing what Bruce would have immediately—it’s too obvious. Selina’s been helpful to him, and if she happened to indulge her less-than-legal impulses, Dick is pretty sure that she would either do it outside of Gotham, or else do something suitably out of character so that Dick wouldn’t show up at her door immediately.

He dials her number, and when she answers, greets her with, “Do you have any enemies?”

“Lots,” Selina replies after a second of bemused silence. “Any reason?”

“Someone stole an ancient jade lynx,” Dick says. “Was it you?”

“Not that I recall,” Selina says. “You’re thinking I was framed?”

“Looks like,” Dick tells her. He hears something that sounds remarkably like a growl and Selina demands his location before hanging up.

“It’s Black Mask,” Selina says confidently when she catches up to him. “Has to be. He’s the only one with a grudge against me, and he doesn’t realize about the change in staff.” She gestured towards him.

“It seems a little…” Dick trailed off, unsure whether it was prudent to point out that Bruce had never really done more than slap Selina on the wrist even when she actually >i>did the robberies, much less for crimes she didn’t actually commit. 

“It’s a distraction,” she says. “He wanted Batman off chasing after a stray cat while Black Mask did something big.”

Dick really, really should have been the one to say that. He wasn’t sure what about Selina made him feel like a blushing pre-teen, but… Okay, that was a lie. He knew exactly what about Selina made him feel that way, and it was the combination of her absolute confidence and the way that she’d honed her body into a double-whammy of distraction and weapon. But this wasn’t their first rodeo, even if this time he’d started wearing the cowboy hat instead of playing the distraction as the rodeo clown, and Dick was determined to not come across as a moron.

He pulls out his mini-tablet and checks the police calls for the night. Nothing stands out at him, all of it surprisingly petty for Gotham. And then…

He holds out the report to Selina. “What do you think?”

“Son of a bitch,” she says.

*

The lights are off at the old film canister warehouse. Selina takes the lead when they start to approach, and Dick follows her closely, trusting her to get them inside unnoticed. There had been a vague ‘suspicious activity’ report on this location, something involving a backhoe, and Dick has seen enough reports – and filed a few of his own – to know that’s code for ‘possible supervillain plot in the planning stages.’ The clincher is the location -- Selina had realized as soon as she saw the report. The warehouse was the nearest property to Arkham, and Dick had the feeling that Black Mask was doing something inadvisable inside, like digging a tunnel to let the madhouse run free.

“Don’t shoot him,” Dick says as the lock Selina is picking opens with a faint _click_. 

The look she gives him would probably be lethal under the right circumstances; he grinned cheekily at her in return. She shudders, and says, “Don’t do that in the cowl. It’s creepy.”

“O says the same thing,” Dick says. “The awesome thing about being in here is I can’t see how weird it is.”

Selina gives him a fond look that makes him want to offer up something to her, something about how Bruce would smile sometimes after failing to arrest her, but breaking that confidence… it would mean that Bruce was really gone, and despite the bat emblazed on his chest, Dick doesn’t like to think of this as permanent. So he says, “Ladies first, motioning towards the door, and has to try to keep his laughter silent when Selina gestures to the door with a flourish, allowing him to enter the warehouse first.

There is earthmoving equipment everywhere, and the floor is a shambles of dirt and support columns. The tunnel that Black Mask was building is larger in scale than Dick would have imagined, and it’s probably the only thing that kept the plan from fruition. A more modest attempt would likely have been completed already.

They take the crew by surprise. It only takes a few well-placed hits to take down the laborers that _don’t_ go running screaming, and by the time he gets to Black Mask himself, Selina has the man pinned down and bullwhipped, and maybe Dick has been around Damian with his casual bloodthirstiness too long, but he doesn’t so much as give Selina a glare for roughing up the man.

He’s earned it, and then some.

After they’ve made sure he’s not escaping and have contacted the proper authorities, Dick and Selina head back into the night. 

“Not bad in there, tiger,” Selina offers. “I’m sure your daddy couldn’t have done it better.”

“That’s sweet,” Dick says, and decides to pretend like she isn’t fibbing. Selina, for all that she toes the line of morality, knew Bruce in a way most didn’t, and Dick appreciates that.


End file.
